Balancing the quality of customer service with its costs has evolved from a simple number crunching exercise to a crucial business decision. Following the growing power of customers, now armed with the ability to voice their opinions to the world on social media platforms, a decision to save costs and settle for lower quality service is riskier than ever.

Almost a decade ago Finnish Railways launched a project to reorganize their customer service operations. The initial aim was to replace the traditional telephone system with a more efficient IP-based one, and find ways to save costs associated with operating the call center.

Incidentally, Finnish Railways were also working on a separate project: Evaluating ways to reorganize the operations in scattered local railway stations that only have a few peak moments every day. The innovation was to combine the two projects and utilize new technology’s true potential and also the true potential of the company –its employees.

There’s always a customer to serve, somewhere

Finnish Railways  deployed an internet-based contact center solution that enabled combining the service personnel at remote train stations into virtual customer service teams. When the local personnel didn’t have customers at their counter, they simply turned to their PCs and began answering customer calls. This model not only improved customer service but it also increased employee motivation.

A decade ago, virtual customer service teams were a pioneering solution, created and developed based on a combination of business needs. The underlying lesson was that technology’s role is to enable organisations to bring together the resources they have, regardless of their location or job title, for the benefit of better customer service.

Customer service is everyone’s business

Imagine if customer service was no longer the task of a purpose-built contact center. What if the entire organisation was a virtual contact center and employees participated in customer service based on the expertise and knowhow they posses?

In the extended contact center, everyone is provided with a real-time view of incoming customer contacts, the employees currently engaged in contacts, and the employees available to pick up new contacts. A single user interface brings together all the diverse communication tools, customer data stored in a CRM solution, and relevant information in ERP and other business applications.

In an organisation where customer service is truly the center of attention, peak times no longer need to translate into longer waiting times and a lower level of service. Instead, the customer service manager can easily alert more employees to join the virtual customer service team, and flexibly allocate employees in the virtual teams to service queues handling different sorts of contacts.

Delighted customers are a true asset

The key enabler of an extended contact center is a communications platform that supplies everyone in the organisation with the tools required to connect with and serve customers. Success results from operations: The customer service process needs to be redesigned to utilize the new opportunities and the employees must be appreciated and rewarded for taking part in the process.

There are few things as valuable as delighted customers, or as risky as unhappy ones. Making sure that the balance stays on the positive side is not something that can be taken lightly. Bringing customer service on everyone’s task list may be too much for many organizations – however, discussing the potential benefits is certainly a worthwhile exercise.

By Pekka Porkka, General Manager, SAP Business Communications Management